Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
POWER USERS' CLINIC: SMART OBJECTS
Smart Objects
are one of the ways Adobe makes Elements' Create projects so fun and easy. Like
their big-shot cousins in the full version of Photoshop, these objects seem to know where they are
and what you're trying to do—and behave accordingly. Here are a few examples of Smart Objects
and what makes them so smart:
▪ When you apply a new background from the Graphics panel or the Graphics section of the
Create panel, it automatically zooms down to the bottom of the layer stack to replace the ex-
isting background.
▪ The frames from the Graphics and Create panels automatically target your photos. Want to
frame an image? Just go to the Graphics panel and double-click a frame. It automatically ap-
pears in your project, though you may need to adjust its size or the area that it frames.
▪ You can resize, transform, and distort objects from the Graphics panel's Graphics section as
much as you want without affecting their quality. This behavior is something like how vector
art works, but what's going on under the hood is quite different. (The preview may appear
pixelated, but the actual object should be OK once you click the Commit icon [the green
checkmark].)
Anything you put into an Elements file in Expert mode by choosing File→Place becomes a Smart
Object, so you can do things like resize the object to any size. Also, anything you drag into one of
the Create projects (photos, graphics, whatever) becomes a Smart Object. However, there are a
few things you
can't
do to Smart Objects unless you simplify them (
Flattening an Image
)
. For ex-
ample, if you try to paint on a Smart Object, you see the message shown in
Figure 15-4
.
